Squeeze that juice
If you are like me, you like "more."
You'd like more loans. More checking accounts. More credit cards. A growing credit union is a happy credit union.
When we think of more, we often think of "new." Membership growth = new opportunities for more.
But I've had a few conversations this year about getting more out of "old."
Most credit unions have checking accounts. Perhaps you track growth in checking accounts, month over month, and year-over-year. I spoke with one CEO, though, who changed her way of thinking.
She cares about checking accounts, but she wants to know how many checking accounts have direct deposit. And she focused her team to come up with a strategy to attract more members to transmit their direct deposit into the credit union. Her idea was to take an existing asset - existing checking accounts - and squeeze more juice out of them.
And now that she has checking accounts with direct deposit, she goes a step further. How many have debit cards? How many of those cards are activated? And how many of those cards are used?
Those are the P - A - U-s of debit cards. Again, Placement, Activation, and Utilization. My friend Joe Little of MasterCard gets the fire in his eyes when he talks about PAUs. They have a marketing plan ready to roll for MC clients. If you turn it on and execute it, you'll get more debit cards Placed. You'll get more Activated. And you'll get more Used.
And that means more interchange. Without a single extra checking account being added.
I'm sure we have other examples. To me, we have tools and assets at our disposal. Have we truly squeezed all the juice out of them? Before running down new alleyways, have we truly cultivated everything that we already have?
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Hey, NAFCU is no different. Are you getting everything out of NAFCU? Here's a quick guide to make sure you get your money's worth from us.
- Did we get an updated roster from you? If you hired a new compliance officer, we have wonderful newsletters for him. But only if we know he exists. Updating a roster at least once a year helps us distribute the right info to the right people.
- Advocacy is job one. Be sure to interact with our lobbyists. We're just an email or a phone call away.
- Sign up for the NAFCU Today. You can do that here. Why? It is a fantastic daily newsletter that picks the brains of our lobbyists and attorneys.
- Are all your compliance, risk, and internal auditors tapped into NAFCU's Compliance Team? They should be aware of all of these benefits.
- Publications. Make sure your compliance team, internal auditors, finance people, BSA people, and others know about our member-only publications. Just email us at msc@nafcu.org and we'll sign you up.
- Regulatory Alerts and Finals. When a rule is proposed or a new rule is finalized, NAFCU's Regulatory Affairs team issues executive summaries to make sure you are in the know.
- Does someone get your customized financial benchmark report? They should. It is a great product.
- Our salary comparison report. Again, a solid product.
- Our Education. Here's a link to all of our 2018 events.
- We're available. Here is our contact list for NAFCU. You'll find...well, everyone.
If all of that seems like a lot to remember - we'd be happy to schedule a NAFCU 101 - a short 15 minute webinar to make sure your team is tapping into everything that NAFCU has to offer.
Again, squeeze that juice!